 |
|
|
UN to launch Haiti emergency appeal
Haiti quake worst disaster ever
Drinking water shortage
Another Indian cabbie roughed up in Oz
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Top cop admits there are racists
‘India faces another 26/11’
Krishna conveys ‘disappointment’ to Prachanda
Pak govt files review petition on NRO issue
Headley case shows LeT’s global aims: US
Indian rescued
NRI in UK’s top security panel
|
|
UN to launch Haiti emergency appeal
United Nations, January 16 The funds would be used for urgently needed food, medical supplies, water and tents following the quake that devastated the poor Caribbean island nation of nine million people. The majority of the funds will go for providing immediate relief while somewhere between $ 20-50 million will be used for longer term priorities like health, sanitation, agriculture and emergency education. "Most of this money will go to urgent needs: food and water are in critically short supply," UN Chief Ban Ki-moon told journalists here. "Given the number of people in the streets, without homes, we must provide shelter….we need tents, and more tents," he added. "We urgently need medical supplies and, even more, emergency medical personnel." UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator, John Holmes, noted the amount of the flash appeal was a first estimate based on preliminary information and could be revised in three weeks. According to Holmes, the total international relief pledges so far are $ 360 million and some of these will go towards the appeals and other will be given bilaterally. Meanwhile, United Nations spokesperson Martin Nesirky said 37 UN personnel have been confirmed dead and 330 remain missing from about 12,000 people working for the world body's all operations in Haiti. There is no clear picture of the number of casualties that are speculated to be in the thousands. Holmes noted that around 27 search and rescue teams on the ground were "busting a gut" to find persons who were buried under the rubble. Noting that each report on the devastation was seemingly worse than the last, the Secretary-General said that the first 72 hours were critical for recovering people alive and the equipment to move the heavy concrete was still needed. "Preliminary estimates from our UN emergency teams show widespread damage to infrastructure in Port au Prince and other affected areas, with as many as 50 per cent of buildings in the worst-hit areas damaged or destroyed," Ban said. "A high proportion of the 3 million people in the capital area are without access to food, water, shelter and electricity," he noted.
— PTI
|
|
Haiti quake worst disaster ever
Geneva, January 16 “This is a historic disaster. We have never been confronted with such a disaster in the UN memory. It is like no other," Elisabeth
Byrs, spokeswoman of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. She noted that at least local government structures remained after the 2004 tsunami hit Indonesia's Aceh province, but in Haiti, the town of
Leogane, for example, had lost all its public services in the earthquake. The earthquake "has decapitated the city," said
Byrs, pointing out that this made coordination of aid efforts all the more
difficult. Byrs had earlier said that a UN assessment team surveying towns to the west of Port-au-Prince found that up to 90 per cent of the buildings in Leogane had been damaged or destroyed by the quake.
— AFP
|
|
|
Drinking water shortage
Port-Au-Prince, January 16 "Many drivers are afraid of being attacked if they go out, some drivers are still missing in the disaster and others are out there searching for missing relatives," said Dudu Jean, a 30-year-old driver who was attacked yesterday when he drove into the capital's sprawling Cite Soleil slum. The lack of water has become one of the greatest dangers facing Haitians, because earthquake survivors stay outdoors all day, out of fear of aftershocks and unstable buildings. While aid has started to pour in from around the world, supplies are not quickly reaching all who need them. — AP
|
|
Another Indian cabbie roughed up in Oz
Indians continued to face the brunt of attacks Down Under with a taxi driver being abused and punched in the face by his four teenage passengers in the neighbouring town of Ballarat, while three Indian youth complained of ‘racism’ on being denied entry into a local bar in Melbourne yesterday night. Characteristically, the Victorian police, who have appealed to witnesses to come forward, were quick to rule out racism as a motive.
The attack on the 25-year-old unidentified Indian taxi driver occurred within 24 hours of another Indian cabbie being punched and racially abused in the historic gold mining town of Ballarat. The police said four males dressed in black t-shirts and aged between 16 and 18 became abusive and started assaulting the taxi driver. One of the passengers in the rear seat spat on the driver while another attempted to pull on the hand brake and tried to remove his hands from the steering wheel. The cabbie pulled over, activated the alarm and notified the directorate of his location. Two of the males then ran from the taxi and the driver gave chase. A third male also got out of the taxi and ran past the driver hitting him on the head with his fist causing the taxi driver to fall over. The fourth male then climbed into the driver’s seat and drove the taxi approximately 500 metres before they all disappeared. In the other incident, three Indian youth along with three Nepalese friends alleged they were turned away without explanation from Melbourne Centre Lion Hotel bar located in the city where they had gone to throw a farewell party for one of their friends. When the youth, in their mid-20s, contacted the police they were advised to go to another bar after being told that they did not view their denial of entry as an act of racism. Privately owned night clubs and bars here, as in most countries around the world, reserve the right to permit or deny entry to prospective clients without assigning any reason.
|
|
|
Top cop admits there are racists
Victoria’s second senior-most police officer Ken Jones has admitted that Indians are ‘bearing the brunt’ of an upswing in violent street crime in Melbourne while conceding “there are racists in Melbourne”.
However, racism, he added, was not endemic in the city ‘but the issue nevertheless needs to be discussed’. Police deputy commissioner Ken Jones’ admittance of racists is in sharp contrast to the general attitude of his boss, Chief Commissioner Simon Overland, who continues to insist that every attack made on an Indian so far has been opportunistic. Ken Jones said the attacks on Indian students were a result of the types of jobs and hours they work and how and when they travel, rather than a surge in racial tension. But Indians should not be blamed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he said.
|
|
|
‘India faces another 26/11’
Washington, January 16 "The threat of another Mumbai-type attack is undeniable; numerous Pakistan-based groups remain motivated and able to strike Indian targets," said Daniel Markey of the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in his latest paper 'Terrorism and Indo-Pakistani Escalation.' Many of these Pakistan-based terror groups have incentives to act as spoilers, whether to disrupt efforts to improve Indo-Pak ties or to distract Islamabad from counter-terror crackdown at home, said Markey, a known South Asia expert. "Thus the immediate risk of terrorism may actually increase if New Delhi and Islamabad make progress on resolving their differences or if Pakistan-based terrorists are effectively backed into a corner," he said in his 11-page contingency planning memorandum of the CFR. While traditionally Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are the two terror groups that have proven themselves the most capable and motivated to carry out attacks in India, this time al-Qaeda could don the mantle, he said. "Al-Qaeda has historically focussed its efforts outside India, but if the group's leadership feels threatened in the Pakistan/Afghanistan border areas, it might direct and assist regional proxies to attack India as a way to ignite a distracting Indo-Pakistani confrontation." Other regional terrorist groups, including those based in India, are improving their capacity to inflict mass-casualty violence, but because these outfits lack clear-cut connections to Pakistan-based organisations, their attacks are far less likely to spark another crisis between India and Pakistan, Markey said. He said the more clearly a terrorist attack can be identified as having originated in Pakistan, the more likely India is to retaliate militarily. He said groups that India perceives to have closer links with Pakistan's military and intelligence establishment - especially LeT - are more likely to "inspire retaliation against official Pakistani state targets" than those that are perceived as more autonomous, such as al-Qaeda. The perception in India that Islamabad has responded inadequately to the Mumbai attacks - trials of accused plotters are moving slowly and LeT ideologue Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is not in custody - strengthens Indian advocates for unilateral military retaliation, Markey said. "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been a strong voice against Indian military retaliation, but his voice could be silenced by a future attack or otherwise drowned out by domestic political pressures," Markey said.
— PTI
|
|
Krishna conveys ‘disappointment’ to Prachanda
Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna has conveyed India’s “deep disappointment” to Nepal over the Maoists’ “baseless” propagandist attack on the country, saying this vitiates the age-old and time-tested relations between the two countries.
Krishna made this remarks during an hour-long talk with Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias, Prachanda here on Saturday. This comes at a time when the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists (UCPN-M) has been carrying out a nation-wide campaign protesting against the “so-called” Indian encroachment upon
Nepal’s territory. Talking to journalists after the meeting, Prachanda said, “We had a frank discussion regarding the review of unequal treaties, including 1950’s Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty, border disputes, bilateral cooperation and economic development of Nepal and our ongoing peace and constitution drafting process.” He said Krishna expressed serious concerns on behalf of India over the ongoing protests unleashed by the Maoist party along the bordering areas, in the pretext of safeguarding national independence and civilian supremacy saying that it could affect
bilateral relations between the two countries. “We also agreed to resolve all pertinent issues through political and proper diplomatic channels,” he said, adding, “Though it’s not a breakthrough but the dialogue is definitely positive to resolve the differences.” Earlier this week, top brass leaders of Maoists, including Prachanda, had inspected the bordering areas allegedly encroached by the India and symbolically burnt down copies of bilateral
treaties, including the 1950’s Treaty. Krishna reportedly urged the Maoists to withdraw its street agitation and try to find out amicable solution through dialogue with the mainstream political parties. Krishna also called on Nepal’s president Ram Baran Yadav and Nepal Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala separately and discussed about the current political development in Nepal and strengthening bilateral relations between the
two countries. Earlier today, Krishna’s scheduled visit to Birgunj was cancelled due to bad weather. Before wrapping up his Nepal visit, the Indian External Affairs Minister is scheduled to meet Constitution Assembly chairman Subas Chandra Nembang and assembly members on Sunday
and share information about constitution drafting process.
|
|
|
Pak govt files review petition on NRO issue
In a significant development, the Pakistan government on Saturday filed a review petition against the short order of the Supreme Court on the issue of National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).
The verdict had annulled the NRO and ordered reopening of criminal and corruption cases against politicians and bureaucrats, including President Asif Ali Zardari. The government had appointed advocate on record Raja Abdul Ghafoor to file the review petition against the court ruling contained in the short order without waiting for the detailed order. SC source say the detailed order is likely to be released soon. January 16 was the deadline for filing a review petition to challenge the court’s verdict. The official view about the ruling is that it has targeted the President by raising extraneous issues, instead of confining to the legal challenge in the petition by Dr Mubashar Hasan. Chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Naveed Ahsan and Additional Prosecutor-General, NAB, and former attorney general Malik Qayyum have also filed review petitions. On December 16, the 17-member Supreme Court Bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhary, declared the NRO unconstitutional and illegal. Malik Qayyum had acknowledged during the hearing that he had moved the Swiss court for withdrawal of cases against Zardari and his slain spouse Benazir Bhutto on a verbal directive by former military ruler Gen Pervez
Musharraf.
|
|
Headley case shows LeT’s global aims: US
Washington, January 16 "The example of David Headley shows Al-Qaida is not the only group with global ambitions that we have to worry about," Daniel Benjamin, Coordinator, Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the State Department said. "LeT has made it clear that it is willing to undertake bold, mass-casualty operations with a target set that would please Al-Qaida planners," Benjamin said. Headley, at the behest of the LeT handlers based in Pakistan, had carried out surveillance of possible terrorist targets in Mumbai and other places in the country. "The group's more recent thwarted conspiracy to attack the US embassy in Bangladesh should only deepen concern that it could indeed evolve into a global terrorist threat," Benjamin said in his address to the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank. "Very few things worry me as much as the strength and ambition of LeT, a truly malign presence in South Asia. We are working closely with allies in the region and elsewhere to reduce the threat from this very dangerous group," he said.
— PTI
|
|
US updates Osama’s photo
Washington, January 16 Bin Laden is now 52 and is believed to be hiding in the lawless Pakistan frontier, bordering Afghanistan, though his exact whereabouts have been unknown since late 2001, when he and a small contingent of bodyguards walked out of the Tora Bora mountains, evading air strikes and US special forces and Afghan militias. The photos are on the State Department’s website www.rewardsforjustice.net.
— AP
|
|
Indian rescued
Kathmandu, January 16 A police squad deployed from Area Police Office Ektanga successfully rescued Yadav, Parsa police spokesperson Bhuwaneshwor Yadav said. The persons who had kidnappeed fled when they saw the Nepal police approaching them, The Himalayan Times quoted the police official as saying. According to Yadav, he was kidnapped by his relatives in an act of revenge following a family dispute a year ago. "We have informed his family members about his whereabouts, we will hand him over once they arrive. Yadav is safe with us till then," the police inspector said.
— PTI
|
|
NRI in UK’s top security panel
London, January 16 The Joint Committee on National Security Strategy has now been formerly moved in the House of Commons and will be meeting informally before the end of the month.
— PTI
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
